VIPER

The PSNI carry out between eight and nine hundred suspect Video Parades a year, viewed by around two thousand witnesses.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland uses Video Identification as the main means of obtaining Identification evidence. When police have eye witnesses to a crime, the suspect can be offered the opportunity to take part in Video Identification. This has replaced the ‘line up’ where the suspect would stand in a line with eight other persons. In Video Identification a short video clip of the suspect is included with video clips of eight other people, who resemble the suspect, all doing exactly the same actions as the suspect carried out on their video clip. This forms a Video ID Parade, which can then be shown to witnesses to see if they select the police suspect.

All these procedures are governed by the Codes of Practice of the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989